2012 La Jolla Handicap

Joe Talamo and Old Time Hockey after winning the 2012 La Jolla Handicap

The feature race on Saturday at Del Mar was the $150,000 La Jolla Handicap (G2) for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. The 28,967 fans on hand enjoyed a typical Del Mar afternoon of sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80's. After Facoltoso scratched, a short field of just 4 went to post with My Best Brother sent off as the 6-5 favorite off a 3-race winning streak including a division of the Oceanside Stakes on opening day. In to challenge him were 5-2 second choice Old Time Hockey, third in the same Oceanside division, 3-1 third choice Blingo, fourth in the other division of the Oceanside after finishing fifth in the Affirmed Handicap (G3), and 7-2 longest shot Chips All In, second in the Oceanside after finishing fourth in the Tsunami Slew Stakes.

Old Time Hockey rallies on the far outside

Jockey Martin Garcia sent My Best Brother to a clear lead first time past the stands and he set fractions of 23.80, 47.85, and 1:10.72 while as many as 4 1/2 lengths in front of Chips All In stalking the pace in second. My Best Brother continued to lead through the stretch, getting the mile in 1:34.51, but Old Time Hockey, who settled in third early, came out wide and closed strongly to prevail by a nose in 1:40.44 over the firm Jimmy Durante turf course. It was just a head back to Chips All In third, and a long 2 3/4 lengths to Blingo last.

Pgm Horse Jockey Win Place Show 2 Old Time Hockey Talamo 7.60 3.20 - 5 My Best Brother Garcia 2.80 - 4 Chips All In Gomez - Winning Time: 1:40.55 $1 Exacta 2-5 7.20 $2 Quinella 2-5 7.20 $1 Trifecta 2-5-4 17.10 Results Chart

Left: Old Time Hockey in the winner's circle. Winning trainer Tom Proctor said, "A four-horse race becomes a jock's race. I was hoping that Gomez (on Chips All In) would push (My Best Brother) a little bit. I was kind of scared because I didn't really see him do it and I thought we might be in a little bit of a spot there. But our horse runs good. If you ever trained horses you know it's hard to win (three) in a row. Our horse has been improving each race and doing well. If everything's good we'll look at the (Del Mar) Derby next. We'll see."

Right: Old Time Hockey in the paddock before the race. Winning jockey Joe Talamo said, "It was very exciting. They told me to ride him as hard as I could. They said the more you ride him, they more he'll give you. They sure were right. I had to move with him a little sooner than I wanted to to make sure (Chips All In) didn't get by. So I got after him pretty good and he was up to it." Craig Bernick, president of owner Glen Hill Farm added, "Three races in six weeks is tough but we'd love to run in that race." Leonard Lavin's Glen Hill Farm has now won the La Jolla twice, and has won the Del Mar Derby three times.

Left: Second place finisher and beaten favorite My Best Brother in the paddock before the race. Jockey Martin Garcia said, "I saved all the ground I could. I slowed it down early as much as I could. I couldn't do anymore. We just got beat today."

Right: Third place finisher Chips All In in the paddock. Jockey Garrett Gomez said, "We got the run we wanted. Just not quite (good enough) today."

Back to Horse-Races.Net main page